Elevated Bitcoin prices in Zimbabwe appear to be the result of the country's dysfunctional economy and mismatched supply and demand.

Since 2009, business in the country has been conducted in a number of foreign currencies, but exchange rates on the thriving black market are highly distorted. Dollars are in short supply, and strict capital controls are in place.

Last year, the country started printing bond notes -- backed by U.S dollars -- in a bid to ease a chronic shortage of cash. But many Zimbabweans worry they are a backdoor to the reintroduction of a local currency that would be doomed to massive devaluation.

"In Zimbabwe, you are very limited with what you can do with the money in your bank account," Golix says on its website. "Bitcoin is better than the money we're using now."